Introduction
To understand what artificial intelligence is, we first need to make our concept clear about intelligence. Every action that a human performs with the help of their brain and mental strength comes under the tag of intelligence which includes reading, speaking, writing, recognizing a pattern, decisions making, thinking, etc. The human brain consists of millions of cells, and every cell contains millions of neurons which are little computers and help the human brain to calculate according to, thus, help in making the right decision at the right time. The ability to replicate the power of the human brain and give it to computers and machines so that they can perform a human-required task without humans is called Artificial Intelligence (AI).
How AI works and its applications
Building an AI system is a process of reverse engineering, human traits, and human-level capabilities in a machine. And with its computational power, we overcome the capabilities of human intelligence.
To understand how AI works, we need to grab some knowledge about sub-domains of AI and how these domains work. There are multiple domains of Artificial Intelligence in various fields of the industry.
Machine learning
Machine learning enables the machine to solve problems and make some decisions that a human can make. At an advanced level, machine learning Is the process of teaching machines or computers how to make accurate predictions with the help of given data.
These predictions could be showing two pictures of a computer and recognizing whether the person has worn a mask or not, showing a picture of fruits and asking for their name of them, spotting the number of people crossing the road, recognizing shapes, etc.
Deep Learning
Deep learning is a technique and a sub-category of machine learning. It is concerned with replicating the algorithms and structures of the human brain.
Neural Network
The neural network performs similarly to the human brain cells. There is a chain of algorithms that capture and process data according to the scenario and thus help in making decisions.
Natural Language processing
Natural language processing is also known as NLP. It is a branch of Artificial intelligence in which machines read, recognize and interprets written text from one language to another. We can see its example in Google and Microsoft translate.
Computer Vision
Google lens and other image recognition programs and software use computer vision algorithms to scan, read, recognize, and provide relevant results accordingly.
Cognitive Computing
Cognitive computing is the branch of AI in which we program the machine this way; it becomes capable of mimicking the human brain and reading, speaking, and analyzing the same way as a human mind does. Google Assistant, Cortana, Sir, Alexa, etc., are examples and run on the principles of Cognitive Computing.
Types of Artificial Intelligence
- Artificial Narrow Intelligence
- Artificial General Intelligence
- Artificial Super Intelligence
Artificial Narrow Intelligence
Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI) is also known as weak AI. Most of the AI-powered technologies we use today are branded under ANI. They are built to perform only one or a set of limited numbers of tasks. ANI performs the task that is pre-defined in their systems. For instance, Voice assistants, Self-driving cars, AlphaGo, etc. Almost all the methods that are built today fall under weak AI.
Artificial General Intelligence
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is also known as Strong AI. We do not have any existing strong AI or Artificial General Intelligence examples. Still, these machines will be considered the most innovative AI development and have the intelligence and smartness of a human level. Even some scientist, including Stephen Hawking, considers AGI a threat to humanity, and they believe that these machines can take over human being.
Stephan Hawking stated that
“The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race…. It would take off on its own and re-design itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans, limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete and would be superseded.”
Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI)
Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI) is a stage of AI where AI becomes super powerful machines, even more than humans. AI computing will achieve that level of the benchmark where it will overcome human capabilities and bring them to the next level of advancement. The ASI is a hypothetical situation we have seen in movies and fictional books where AI is taking over humanity and the earth. We are going to achieve this level of AI very soon.
“The pace of progress in artificial intelligence (I’m not referring to narrow AI) is swift. Unless you have direct exposure to groups like Deep mind, you have no idea how fast—it is growing at a pace close to exponential. The risk of something scary happening is in the five-year timeframe. Ten years at most.”- Even Elon Musk quoted.
Conclusion
AI is making our lives easy and convenient, making AI so beneficial and sugar-coated, but we might see some alarming extents of this in the future.
